How?

This is the first article in a series entitled, Foundations of Our Faith.  In these articles we will look at important aspects of our faith and explain much more about what we believe, why we believe that, and why those beliefs are important.  Our first article is entitled, How Was The Old and New Testament Compiled- How? 

St. Jerome said, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." When it comes to how the scriptures were complied, it appears that we are very ignorant.  If St. Jerome is correct then a greater understanding of how the scriptures were compiled would give us a greater knowledge of Christ. 

To more fully understand how the New and Old Testament was compiled you must look at a long process in which the Bible as we know it today actually came into existence. The Bible today appears to many people to be something that it is simply not. It is much more than a nicely leather bound book that is the most popular book that was ever published.  The story of how it was compiled is almost as rich as the beautiful passages it contains.

Much of what we think we know about the Bible and how it was compiled is based on some very large misconceptions that are commonly held by the public. Some of these come about because of how the reader tries to interpret the material that is contained in the Bible.  Some people profess it to be the direct word of God written by people who took the words from God's mouth and then through the magic of a word processor compiled all of the information neatly into one nice leather bound book.  Forget the fact that process actually took place over thousands of years and forget the fact that it took place in several countries.  To some people, the Bible is the sole source of all that you need to know about God and his plans for us.  Because this misconception occurs it reinforces the reason why we need  to know  how the Bible was compiled.

It is vitally important because how the Bible was compiled helps a person to understand why it complied.  There are three aspects of how the Bible was compiled that is significant and understanding them at this point will greatly assist anyone in understanding what the Bible actually means.  These aspects are: the Bible was written by men who were inspired by God, it was compiled by Church Fathers who were inspired by God, and individuals outside of the Church greatly helped assist in its development.

In the course of this paper, I will focus mainly on the last two aspects.  This approach was taken not to slight the people who wrote the individual books of the Bible but to emphasize the compiling aspect of the book, as well as, some of the dramatic outside influences that took place in the Bible's development. Before one looks at the vast information that is contained in the Bible, it is essential that we consider the unusual fact that even though we have a Bible today- it didn't come together in a simple process.  You can't pick a certain date when the Bible was actually put together.

The people who think they know exactly how it was actually compiled once they begin to study it more will find that much of their present knowledge is based on nothing more than commonly held misconceptions. To fight these misconceptions, I offer a unique look at how the Bible was compiled. 

Please continue reading more about our Foundations of Our Faith in Catholic 365.com- share it, enjoy it, and live it.  You will be glad you did.